The text begins and ends defectively, and there are two lacunae towards the end. What was originally the first leaf of the first quire, numbered 1a, has been cut away, leaving a strip approximately 15 mm wide; one to two letters, in some places on the verso up to four, remain of each line.

The manuscript contains a large number of erasures, possibly by the scribe, possibly by a later hand, but in any case for the most part not filled in; for example on fol. 3ra, lines 15-16 there are two erasures, the first of perhaps 16, the second of six characters, and four lines of text have been erased on fol. 5vb following line 21.

Layout

The manuscript is written in two columns throughout. Most columns contain 25 lines; the exceptions are cols 18 (fol. 5rb) and 22 (fol. 6rb) with 24 lines (owing to spaces left between chapters), cols 89-90 (fol. 23r) with 23 lines and cols 91-96 (fols 23v-24v) with 22 lines. The pricking is visible on all leaves.

Script

Additions

Spaces for initials and chapter headings were left by the scribe, but not filled in. A later, probably fifteenth-century, hand has added initials and chapter headings in greenish-coloured ink on fols 8r-9r, 10r and 11r. Although a few of these chapter headings are now rather difficult to read, most can be made out, e.g. fol. 8rb “floti astridar”, fol. 9rb “vm olaf konung” and fol. 10ra “Gipting olafs konungs”.

The manuscript contains the following marginalia:

Fol. 4v, left margin: “hialmadr og| brynjadr”, in a fifteenth-cenury hand, imitating an addition made to the text by the scribe at this point.

There are in addition a number of illegible scribbles in a later hand (or hands) on fols 2r, 3r, 5v and 19r; what appears to be the name Þórgeir Jónsson is written in a similar hand on fols 6r and 16r.

Binding

Formerly unbound (cf. Verner Dahlerup, Ágrip 1880 p. iii), the manuscript was bound during restoration between September 1969 and January 1970.

Accompanying Material

There are six slips (a-f) written in Árni Magnússon's hand bound into the manuscript: